(AP) magazine picked up Consumer Magazine of the Year, for the second time, at a glitzy ceremony held in central London on Friday night.

UK retailers and manufacturers voted for AP above many other publications in the annual awards hosted by weekly photographic trade magazine .

AP Editor Damien Demolder (pictured) said afterwards: ‘This award underlines the standing of AP within the trade and how these business people regard the magazine in comparison to the many others we compete with every week.

‘The award endorses our content, our style and our emphasis, the way we approach news, as well as the way the magazine looks, its factual accuracy and use of language.’

named the other awards winners as:

Accessory manufacturer/supplier of the year – HAMA

Film media manufacturer/supplier of the year В– Peak Development/Sandisk

Processing manufacturer of the year В– Fujifilm

Hardware manufacturer of the year В– Nikon

Independent Retailer of the year В– Park Cameras

Multiple Retailer of the year В– Wilkinson Cameras

Mass Retailer of the year В– John Lewis Online Retailer of the Year В– Warehouse Express

Independent Minilab of the year В– Bywaters Digital Camera Exchange

Multiple Minilab of the year В– Kodak

Distributor of the year В– Intro 2020

Rep of the year В– Richard Hardwicke, Canon

Retail Sales person of the year В– Clare Harvey-May, RK Photographic

Innovative product of the year В– Photo Me photobook Pro

Outstanding contribution to the industry В– Mary Walker for Focus on Imaging

Source: feedproxy.google.com

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The photographic community is incredibly diverse, made up of photographers who shoot from the sky to the sea and everywhere in between. Each month we look at a different segment of the industry, interviewing top professional photographers about life, their careers, and what sets their piece of the photographic industry apart from the rest.

This month we focus on Steve Winter, 52, a contributing photographer at National Geographic magazine since 1991. Focusing on conservation photography, Winter’s subjects have included volcanoes in Iceland, grizzly bears in Russia, and the natural history of Cuba. The New Jersey-based photographer recently traveled to India, documenting snow leopards for his most recent National Geographic article. While on a layover in Delhi, India, Winter took some time to share a glimpse of his life after spending three months photographing in the field.

Q. What led to your career at National Geographic? I read that, as a child, you aspired to travel the world as a photographer for National Geographic; did you ever consider that to be an attainable goal?

I remember as a child looking at the National Geographic magazines we had in my home south of Fort Wayne, Indiana. They took me to places far away from Midwest cornfields. I was totally fascinated by the cultures that I discovered on those pages. And when I was young, I was obsessed with wildlife shows: I remember getting all choked up even hearing the intro music before a National Geographic TV show.

I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer since I was eight years old. My parents always led me to believe that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to, and I took that to heart. I felt I could realize my dream. One of the things I try to impart to students during lectures is that dreams are not just something you experience at night while sleeping: they are your lifeblood — focus, be passionate and don’t give up.

Upon graduating from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, one of my photographic idols, Michael “Nick” Nichols, offered me a job as his assistant — then my education really began — also a long-term friendship that has made a large impact on my career.

I got my shot at doing my first story for National Geographic magazine partly because I had been working for National Geographic World magazine and doing short pieces for the “front of the book” for National Geographic magazine. To work for National Geographic magazine, I showed my portfolio to the Deputy Director of Photography Susan A. Smith (to whom I owe so much) and the then the Director of Photography, Tom Kennedy. I proposed a story on the Quetzal and we worked out a deal where the first trip was a “prove you can do it trip.” I was successful and learned so much about working in the field with biologists and the patience it takes shooting natural history. I then received a contract for the whole story and with the help on my photo editor, Kathy Moran, and so many others, my career at National Geographic magazine began.

Q. What projects have you worked on for National Geographic? Where have you traveled? Have you published recent work in other publications?

I first set foot into the rainforest in 1992. It was a life-changing experience. I had a corporate shoot in Costa Rica through my then-agency, Black Star. My job was to document the collaboration between Merck Pharmaceuticals and the National Biodiversity Institute (of Costa Rica) in their quest to find new medicinal compounds in tropical forests. As Merck’s research director told me, “We ran out of ideas and had to move back to Mother Nature.”

I went down with my family and remember walking into the forest for the first time one morning with my wife, Sharon Guynup. As the darkness enveloped us, we realized that we knew nothing about this world, where to see animals or how to be safe there. So we went back to the research facility and talked to the scientists who knew the forest like their own backyard, and spent the next days out with them.

I was completely awed. That experience changed the direction of my work from social documentary to natural history and conservation. During that trip, Sharon, who is a writer and photographer, was doing seven stories for Science magazine. One of her subjects was Dr. George Powell, an ornithologist who was studying bellbirds and quetzals at the time. After I got home, he sent information on a great place in Guatemala to photograph quetzals. This became my first story for National Geographic magazine.

My earlier work focused on people and culture. When I was 20 years old, I circled the globe for eight months shooting pictures. I also spent a lot of time in Mexico, and lived for nine months in Haiti working on stories, including a piece on Mother Teresa’s Home for the Sick and Dying, another on the slums surrounding Port-au-Prince, and covered the many coups that erupted during that period.

For National Geographic, I traveled to Iceland to photograph a volcano erupting from a glacier, shot the world’s first wild jaguar story in locations from Arizona to Brazil, and did a story on the creation of the world’s largest tiger reserve in Myanmar. I also produced stories on the grizzly bears of Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River, and the natural history of Cuba, which I like to call the Galapagos of the north. I tend to propose stories that have never been done before. I like the challenge and they are always full of adventure.

My last shoot for another publication was in 2000; since then, my magazine work has been exclusively for National Geographic.

Source: www.popphoto.com

read more from " Behind the Lens with Steve Winter "

has teamed up with Nikon to launch a photography competition aimed at young photographers.

The Hello! Young Photographers Award is open to photography students aged 18-30.

Launched to mark the celebrity magazine’s 20th year, the top prize is £5,000 cash, plus a photo shoot commission for .

‘Demand for quality photographic work has never been greater as our culture becomes increasingly dominated by visual imagery,’ states the magazine’s website.

Judges will include Penny Lancaster Stewart and Terry O’Neill.

The categories are: At Home/Interiors; Reportage; Weddings and Celebrations; Babies and Parenthood; and Fashion.

A maximum of three images can be uploaded per category.

An exhibition of the best images will take place at the Getty Images Gallery in London later this year.

The runner-up will bag £2,500 and a two-day internship with a Getty Images photographer.

Category winners will receive a Nikon D40 digital SLR.

The closing date is 27 June.

For details visit www.hellomagazine.com/youngphotocomp

Source: www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

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